Martin Sherwin’s “Gambling with Armageddon”

The development and the deployment of nuclear weapons are usually based on the assumption that they enhance national security.  But, in fact, as this powerful study of nuclear policy convincingly demonstrates, nuclear weapons move nations toward the brink of destruction.

The basis for this conclusion is the post-World War II nuclear arms race and, especially, the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.  At the height of the crisis, top officials from the governments of the United States and the read more

Video: The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With

By Free Press Network, January 15, 2023

In this recording of a webinar from January 14, 2023, David Swanson discussed his forthcoming book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With. See the 26:24 point in the video.

The Monroe Doctrine was and is a justification for actions, some good, some indifferent, but the overwhelming bulk reprehensible. The Monroe Doctrine remains in place, both explicitly and dressed up in novel language. Additional doctrines have been built on its foundations. read more

In Praise of Email

Email doesn’t buzz my phone or watch.

Email can’t see me.

Email can’t hear me.

Email can’t cough on me.

I can delete an email without being rude.

I can laugh at an email without being rude.

I can adore an email and read it 18 times and research its topics and its author and its recipients and take hours replying, link to voluminous treatises for further reading, add graphics, and CC six people on six continents who would really like to see it, and BCC two more people who would really like to read more

This Business of Burning Human Beings

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 12, 2023

Remarks on RootsAction.org’s Defuse Nuclear War livestream on January 12, 2023. Video here.

Thank you for all for being here and for including me.

We know the risks. They’re no secret. The Doomsday clock has almost nowhere to go but oblivion.

We know what’s needed. We’ve made a national holiday of a man who said he would oppose all nukes and all wars without any regard to whether it was popular, who said the choice was between nonviolence read more

Tomgram: Andrea Mazzarino, The Hunger Wars?

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Sometimes a little history is just what the doctor ordered.

It was April 16, 1953, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former supreme commander of allied forces in Europe in World War II, had been president for just 12 weeks. That first great Cold War conflict, the Korean War, was still months away from ending when he read more

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Toward a More Perfect North American Union?

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

In case you hadn’t noticed — and if you’re part of the Biden administration foreign-policy team, you probably haven’t — this country is in decline, globally as well as domestically, and increasingly pugnacious about it. If you want evidence of that reality (and it read more

Five Things to Do for Peace in the Days Ahead

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 5, 2022

1. Join an online celebration of the peace advocacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 12, with

  • Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign
  • Pastor Michael McBride of Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
  • Judith LeBlanc of Native Organizers Alliance
  • Daniel Ellsberg
  • Khury Petersen-Smith of Institute for Policy Studies
  • David Swanson of World BEYOND War
  • Norman Solomon
  • Hanieh Jodat – Moderator

Register here.

2. Join in a week of actions wherever you are for peace in Ukraine, January 13-22. Learn more and find or create an event here.

3. Celebrate the anniversary of nuclear weapons being banned on January 22! Learn more and find or create an event here.

4. Make plans to be in Washington D.C. on February 19 for the Rage Against the read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Greatest Depression of All?

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Old News in a New Year The Inflation and Deflation Stories of Our Lifetime (and No, They’re Not the Ones You Think!) By

Let me start 2023 with a glance back at a December news moment that caught my eye. To do so, however, I have to offer a bit of explanation.

First, the obvious: I’m an old guy and, though I spend significant parts of any day scrolling through endless websites covering aspects of our ever-changing world, I have a subscription — yes, it’s still possible! — to the New read more